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STATE OF NEW YORK

IN SENATE

ALBANY, January 26, 1925.

MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNOR APPROVING THE PROGRAM OF LEGISLATION PROPOSED BY THE STATE COUNCIL OF PARKS.

To the Legislature:

STATE OF NEW YORK

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

ALBANY, January 26, 1925.

In my Annual Message it was stated that I would communicate with you at an early date as to the details of legislation required for the next steps on our State Park Program.

The State Council of Parks, composed of representatives of the several park commissions and their technical advisers, have prepared a program of legislation which I have reviewed and which meets with my complete approval. The bills which have been prepared by the Council, some of which have already been introduced in the Legislature, represent vitally necessary steps to carry out the purposes of the bond issue, overwhelmingly adopted by the people last fall. This legislation is necessarily somewhat complicated because in developing a unified program on a state-wide scale, a number of special and general laws are affected. The main purpose of this legislation, however, is to bring together, and coordinate the practices of a number of agencies of the government which have up to recently been scattered and are only

now beginning to work together on a common plan. After discussing this matter with members of the Council, it seems to me that in another year the greater part of the legislation affecting the state parks can be placed under one new article of the State Conservation Law. The preparation of such an article will involve considerable work and further experience in the development of the program will go far toward perfecting such a consolidated park act.

In transmitting a list of the measures recommended by the Council, I am including a brief comment on each:

1. Bond Issue Appropriation Bill. Agreed upon unanimously by the Park Council after a careful survey of needs for the coming year. This and other bills were considered by counsel and engineers of various commissions and by a representative of the Attorney General, and drafted after numerous conferences.

It is of vital importance that this bill, which carries out the mandate of the people, be passed at the very beginning of the session. Numerous park developments, including permanent improvements and land purchases, should be made at once. A number of properties were acquired in the course of the last year which cannot be made available to the public this summer unless needed improvements are provided for by contract or otherwise before the construction season opens. In some of these cases properties are involved which are so situated that the public could not without considerable expenditure be excluded in the summer season, even if the Park Commissions wished to do so. The danger of admitting people in considerable numbers to places without public conveniences is obvious. In other cases, options and similar agreements are involved which should be completed without delay so as to avoid expense. It should be borne in mind that in a good many of these cases, property owners have placed themselves in position where they cannot sell their property to anyone else but the State, and where delays are not only unfair to the property owners, but in the long run give the State a bad reputation and increase the expense of land purchases.

There is another source of delay in the acquisition of land to which attention should be drawn in connection with this bill. The bill, as I understand it, contemplates that before money is paid out for land purchases, the Comptroller shall have the approval of title from the Attorney General. I am informed by the Park Council that the approval of titles has often been delayed for many months. In fact, many cases are now pending in which

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